Judges have no right to decide if hospitals are closed

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Jeremy Hunt does not strike me as the most brilliant man to have held public office, but when it comes to whom I would rather have making decisions on hospital services — him or Mr Justice Silber — there is no contest.

Mr Hunt, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for Health, is a member of a government elected in 2010 on the strength of its manifesto. Mr Justice Silber has never been elected or even subjected to public or parliamentary scrutiny. Yet this week he was able to overturn Mr Hunt’s decision to downgrade A&E services at Lewisham hospital in South London